Comments on: Advice Column?

By: Life with Kaishon

Life with Kaishon — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:18:17 +0000

What a brilliant blog. I am going to follow along on your journey. Your post about marriage was incredible.

By: pberra

pberra — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 13:13:26 +0000

Reblogged this on Peter Berra.

By: Bob Black

Bob Black — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 22:10:10 +0000

Dear Big Al:

I am a (long-in-the-tooth, yet thin-in-the-waist) year old husband/father/writer/photographer/instructor/drinker living (currently, i think) in T-dot (Toronto). My teenage sone has been doing something weird lately. In the middle of the night, he gets up and (i have no fucking clue….um, maybe i do). I’m worried. Does this mean he’s got a girl (my wife and I suspect). Does this mean he’s binge drinking (but as responsible parents, we allow that, and talk about with him and he’s straight up with us, sort of, sober or otherwise). Does this mean ___…Um, what does this means. He tends to be incredibly moody on saturday and sunday ams (wait, PM, since he rises at noon). I know I am a freak (but I hope a good dad) and he has totally rejected the life of being an artist (even though his mother and I have worked our asses off to support his beautifully mad work, and helped him get published and exhibited-2 black family exhibitions to date) because he views his parents as cooky (yes, his work: ibid, binge drinking lexical tendencies). So, he’s told us, maybe architecture or building racecars is in the future (art forms both). So, my question Big Al is this:

What the hell is going on with our kid?

Sincerely and with great respect and affection,

Bob Black

By: LBM

LBM — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 13:20:44 +0000

Keep the questions coming. Please use standard advice column question speech:

Dear Big Al,

I am a ___ year-old _____ living in ______. My girlfriend has been doing something weird lately. In the middle of the night she gets up and ________. I’m worried. Does this mean he’s an artist or just some kind of freak? Please help.

Sincerely,

________

By: HoaiPhai

HoaiPhai — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 10:40:33 +0000

As one (amateur) photographer that is long in the tooth and who never really produced any influencial work, I say “Bring on the advice!!”

By: Skully

Skully — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 05:08:36 +0000

Dear Big Al,

In grad school one of my professors said the best way to become an artist was to embrace the great tradition of cultivating a sponsor, and marry someone with a trust fund. I thought he was joking…was he?

Yers,

Skully

By: Long Black Moccasin

Long Black Moccasin — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 22:47:32 +0000

I think it’s a great idea. You could certainly offer much advice through experience. The fan questions which you’ll undoubtedly get a few of will be pretty funny.

Do you think think it is okay to drink whiskey on solo photo trips? Steinbeck put me off, see, as he didn’t allow himself to, getting about it Rocinante, figuring if he was drinking alone that made him something of an alcoholic.

Do you speak any other languages?

What time do you usually wake up?

Quick, get it going, the questions are coming.

By: Tom

Tom — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 21:56:23 +0000

Do you really think you could be THAT annoying? That’s a rhetorical question, not a challenge. All kidding aside, I think you could dispense some quality advice that would be very useful to aspiring artists and photographers. But like so many things, producing a serious advice column would demand some hard work and time commitment. I would actually enjoy reading a serious effort from you — just make sure you really want to do it before jumping in.

By: tim carpenter

tim carpenter — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 18:56:36 +0000

ok. i am convinced that you should have an advice column.

By: harlan erskine

harlan erskine — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 16:56:54 +0000

Does St. Paul have public access tv? or maybe the times would let you have a column like the old days of newspapers. also a side note you should try and do a drunk photo-history like one of those drunk history shows.